


On the Edge of Death

by CallYourGirlfriend



Series: All The Light We Cannot See [2]
Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Drabble, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Exhaustion, Gen, Grief, Headaches & Migraines, Hurt/Comfort, Implied Sexual Content, Mildly Dubious Consent, Sex, Sexual Dysfunction, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24744499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallYourGirlfriend/pseuds/CallYourGirlfriend
Summary: "They don’t kiss, they never kiss, but she takes his throbbing head and rests it against her bony shoulder. Her fingers, long and thin, tangle in his dirty hair. He flinches when she finds the scar along his crown. It’s still tender and even her soft touch reminds him his head is not quite right."
Relationships: Tommy & Lizzie, Tommy Shelby/Lizzie Stark, implied Tommy Shelby and Grace Burgess
Series: All The Light We Cannot See [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789294
Kudos: 24





	On the Edge of Death

**Author's Note:**

> This work is part of the series "All The Light We Cannot See," which uses canon to imagine what happens before, sometime in the middle or just after an episode leaves off. It's the light we do not see. It is also purposefully concise; written to fit exactly one Google Doc page.

**_Coda--3x06_ **

Tommy’s two days without sleep and nursing an ache behind his eyes not even whiskey can touch when he finds Lizzie chaining in the cellar where they’re keeping the Russian money. 

She exhales smoke and waves a wad of cash back and forth. “D’you remember, just after the war, when you had to empty your pockets just to give me 2P for it?” 

Tommy claims the fag, hand lingering on hers. “I offered you three thousand times that tonight.”

Her eyes, blue as his but colder for it, see through him. “That’s important to you?”

Tom drags so hard the tip of the cigarette glows red hot. “... It’s all I have now.” 

Lizzie scoffs. “Poor Thomas Shelby. Left with nothing but his fucking blood money.” 

She looks at him then and Tommy realizes what she’s trying to do. He’s barely hard right now, but he wants this. Wants anything to forget the crunch of paddy wagon wheels, of his name spat at him like a curse by his own kin. He flicks the cigarette aside and pushes her against the wall.

“You say you don’t like the money, Lizzie. Don’t like the fucking life. Yet here you are. Still.”

They don’t kiss, they never kiss, but she takes his throbbing head and rests it against her bony shoulder. Her fingers, long and thin, tangle in his dirty hair. He flinches when she finds the scar along his crown. It’s still tender and even her soft touch reminds him his head is not quite right.

“You think you did a good thing today, Tom,” Lizzie breathes. “That you’re the lesser evil.”

Tom knows there is no lesser evil than a man who’d sacrifice his family to the edge of death. 

“You refuse the King’s shilling, Lizzie, but only because you think morality comes cheaply.” 

Lizzie laughs, rueful. “I used to fuck seven men a day, Tom, and never make one single pound. What morality I could afford then is the same as it is now. It’s everything else that costs more.” 

Taken in her arms like this, Tommy can smell the bitter tang of her sweat. He imagines it trickling cold and damp down her spine as she organized his millions into neat little stacks. He wonders if she dabbed at her brow when she realized how easily she could be dead in the noose, too. 

He wonders if she wasn’t the only one in the house who wasn’t afraid because, while Tom’s war is out there, Lizzie’s is right here. With him. They’ve both spent years trying to come home. 

Maybe this is the closest they’ll ever get.


End file.
